If you're a fan of the Star Wars world, you know that Episode III is the "last episode" in terms of movie releases. This is the ultimate episode where Anakin finally turns to the dark side and embraces his new personae as Darth Vader.

The translation into a game was done with the full cooperation of the Star Wars people, and there are many integrations of video clips into the storyline. I've seen this done VERY well with other games, so that you feel you're an integral part of the storyline. Unfortunately, with the XBox engine, this just doesn't work as well in this game. When you switch from the movie back into gameplay, the characters suddenly look very wooden and blocky. I don't think you'd have that reaction at all if 1) they didn't try to make it a seamless situation or 2) they'd done a better job with in game graphics.

The movement of the characters during fighting is relatively smooth, with the saber attacks, spins, jumps and so on. The problem here is that much of what you're doing is repetitive. Oh look, another wave of droids to slaughter. It often comes down to button mashing, which is a shame because in an RPG like manner you get to build up your character's strengths to customize him.

I also have to comment that the dialogue gets very inane, very quickly. I realize they can't "fix" Anakin to make him more pleasant - but it's like water torture to hear his snotty voice snapping back at Kenobi constantly.

It was very nice of them to have two player gameplay, something which is missing from a lot of games. But on the other hand, why don't they have an XBox Live component? With so many people who play on Live - but don't have nearby friends to play in the house - it's a real shame. I know many people who are home taking care of kids or for other reasons can't have someone else "in" their house, and Live is an important aspect of their free time fun.

Finally, there were situations in the game where you hit a "puzzle to be solved" and you were given quick instructions about what button to press - but if you missed those for some reason, you were doomed to death so that you could go back and replay up to that area and hear the instructions again. That just makes no sense in a modern game.

Great potential here - but numerous flaws that really should have been spotted easily during beta testing.